Airman who died in the Surrey area, circa August 1942

[JDCAVE]

Dad was involved in helping an airman who died in a flying accident in a Tiger moth, circa August 1942. Dad said he saw the tiger moth go down and crash in a farmer's field. Dad landed in the field and pulled the man from the burning a/c. He was badly burned and died in my dad's arms. All I have to go on is a letter from his wife to my father, dated September 1, 1942.

To. Flying Officer Cave
No. 18 EFTS
[Fairoaks]
RAF

Dear Sir: I should like to thank you very much for the gallant effort you made to try and help my husband in his terrible accident.
Yours Sincerely,

K.E. Davis ("Brocus" High Street, Godstone Surrey).

Until now, I have never tried to find the identity of the individual. I do not believe he was with No. 18 EFTS, or dad would have mentioned that.

I'd be grateful if anyone could provide any leads with the details I have provided.

Jim

[Terry]

Jim, From The CWGC:
Sergeant GEOFFREY CHARLES CLIFTON DAVIS
Service Number: 976091
Regiment & Unit/Ship: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Date of Death: Died 27 August 1942
Age 39 years old
Buried or commemorated at: GODSTONE (ST. NICHOLAS) CHURCHYARD South part of churchyard
United Kingdom
Son of Charles James Davis and of Fanny Isabel Davis (nee Wolfe); husband of Kathleen Emily Davis, of Godstone. M.I.M.T.
Regards, Terry

[paulmcmillan]

Hobson has Davis on

Flying Training Command Fairoaks, Surrey 18 Elementary Flying Training School Tiger Moth II T6433

Dived into the ground 3 miles from Hartfordbridge, Hants when control was lost during a training flight.

[JDCAVE]

Thank you gentlemen. Davis would have been the instructor. Dad said the instructor had already died by the time he got to the scene. The pupil was the gentleman he tried to save. Dad took off to another airfield to pick up a medical person. The pupil had died by the time they returned to the field. The farmers had told the investigators that there had been some low level flying and there were implications that dad was involved in that. There was a Courts Inquiry and dad was exonerated of any wrong doing but the situation was quite tense. Dad said he hadn’t seen the other a/c until it he saw the smoke from the crash.

Jim

[Jagan]

http://www.rafcommands.com/database/...php?uniq=T6433

BTW for queries like this I would start with our CWGC database which is now 93.5% complete (And probably 98-99% for aircraft related losses)

So All Tigermoth deaths between 1 Aug 42 to 2 Sept 42

http://www.rafcommands.com/database/...rce=&qt=&cur=0

Leaves one obvious entry.. I know it takes the fun out of this type of threads :-)

[JDCAVE]

Jagan: My apologies. I've not done many searches in this nature, so turn to those who have. It turns out that I have more on this now I know the date of the accident. I don't have many pages of the ORB for Fairoaks, but I do have the summary for this day, August 27, 1942:

"At about 0930 hrs, a Tiger Moth aircraft piloted by 976091 Sgt Pilot Davis G.C.C. with 1338443 LAC White, R. crashed and burst into flames. The instructor was killed and the pupil died later in hospital. At a Court of Inquiry, held on the 29th. August 1942, no reason could be found for the cause of the accident. This is the third fatal accident in the history of the school."

I have a group photo of the instructors at Fairoaks, purportedly taken in July 1942 and Davis is not identified in the photo.

Jim

[Jagan]

Hi Jim, no worries..

not every one aware of the full search capabilities, just thought I would take a moment to advertise it :)

Thanks for the additional detail - every post with a serial or a service number/name will turn up in the appropriate database - helping future researchers.